AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 209 



previously at Whitewater : two Cormorants have, to 

 my knowledge, been shot on the lake at Blather- 

 wycke, one of them certainly before 1855, and the 

 other on November 4, 1871 ; and Captain Ashby 

 recorded the occurrence of an immature specimen 

 on Naseby Reservoir on January 10, 1877, in the 

 ' Field,' Another occurrence of a Cormorant in 

 Northamptonshire, with which I am acquainted, is 

 that of a young bird killed at Cherry Orchard, near 

 Brigstock, early in September 1883, and brought to 

 me most villainously badly stuffed, on approval, on 

 October 31 ; this bird was first rej^orted to me by 

 Lady Lyveden as having for some days haunted the 

 garden-ponds at Farming Woods, and I should have 

 been glad to add it to my local collection, but the 

 abominable mounting and the ridiculous price asked 

 for it prevented me from doing so. I have vague 

 reports of other occurrences, but I know that in some 

 of these cases the bird reported as a " Cormorant " 

 was in fact a Shag (P. f/raculns), of which species I 

 propose to treat in my next article. 



The Common Cormorant, which is also known 

 as " Great " and " Black " Cormorant, is locally 

 abundant in many parts of the coasts of the three 

 kingdoms, and is to be met with at all seasons 

 wherever it can find either salt- or fresh-water fishes 

 in sufficient numbers to supply its constantly ravenous 

 appetite. The Cormorant generally nests in colonies 

 on the ledges of sea-cliffs, but also by no means in- 

 frequently on high trees, and on the continent of 

 Europe often in reed-beds and willow-swamps. The 

 nests that I have examined on our own coasts were 

 principally composed of sea-w^eed, with fragments of 

 drift-wood, and in some instances were lined with 



VOL. II. p 



